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PS3 Sales Hit 70 Million Worldwide, Move Surpasses 15 Million

If we all remember the dark days of 2007, this number is all the more impressive.

Sony has announced that cumulative worldwide sales of the PlayStation 3 have hit 70 million as of November 4, 2012, which means the console reached this plateau in less than 6 years on the market. Sony also revealed that sales of PlayStation Move have surpassed 15 million global sales as of November 11, "demonstrating continued growth and momentum of the PS3 platform."

The PS3 has continued to evolve since first launching back in 2006; the system has become lighter and thinner (that has happened twice now), and multiple models have delivered a variety of hard drive sizes and features. Some gamers weren't too happy about losing the full backwards compatibility boasted by the original 60GB unit but otherwise, things have been altered for the better. One can also point to the rise of Blu-Ray, the greatly enhanced PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store, and the arrival of cutting-edge exclusive software.

Remember when everyone thought it would take like five years just to sell 20 million? Ah yes, the prophecies of doom...lookin' a tad silly now.

With or without it, it will win the war. When all is said and done, and we're playing our PS4's, my money is on the PS3 having sold more than both the 360, and yes, I even believe eventually more than the Wii.

Remember the disc format war, HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, was still going on when the PS3 was already out at launch and so. Good thing Sony won, that was one thing that held me back of buying a PS3. If they lost it could of been ugly.Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 11/16/2012 3:14:03 PM

Good to know. Not quite the 100 million + the PS2 had by about the same time but not too shabby for the best console money can buy right now.

So some sites are reporting shipped and others are saying sold. I thought Sony only reports sold? But maybe when quantities are purchased by resellers to be sold in stores those are technically already sold units.Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/16/2012 12:29:10 PM

Sony typically only reports sold. Microsoft reports shipped. They also don't bother to address the HIGHLY skewed numbers due to the 1/3 failure rate of 360s and the same owners rebuying the system multiple times.

Oh, and the fact that the PS3 has been around for one year LESS and has STILL sold as much or more.

... But what exactly is the difference? I mean, Sony can't possibly know how many units are in stock at every retailer at any time, so obviously "sold" must mean units sold to their retailers. And don't they ship the amount that is ordered, ergo sold?

Only 2 sides of the same coin if absolutely not a single system sits on a shelf forever.

In retail, ordered units in video games and other things aren't outright sold, per-se. In other words, if a company scales back the cost of a game by $20, the retailers have to sell at that rate. They don't lose profit just because the publishers said so.

Let's try with a simple examle, shall we?Let's say Sony receives an order from merchant A of 100 PS3s. Sony then wrap up one hundred consoles and ship them to merchant A. What have we then got? 100 sold consoles, and 100 shipped consoles.

If Sony could only deliver 50 consoles that month, we would have had 100 sold, but 50 shipped consoles that month, right? Then next month Sony produce 50 new consoles, and ship those to merchant A. That month Sony then would have had 0 sold, but 50 shipped consoles.

Now if merchant A only sells 20 consoles of the 100 they got in stock, Sony has still sold and shipped 100 consoles. It makes no difference for Sony? So what the reailers sell again, means nothing in this - only what Sony sells and how much of the sales that are shipped within the same time period.

So in essence, I don't in really see any important difference between "sold" and "shipped" unless you sell much more than you are able to ship - but if so, you'll only later get a higher "shipped" than "sold", it will only lag a bit but the totals are the same.Last edited by Beamboom on 11/16/2012 7:40:30 PM

btw, there's 4500 walmarts globally, 6,700 Gamestops globally, 1,000 Best Buys, and Amazon's annual revenue is a ninth of Walmarts, so we'll be generous and claim Amazon sells half of Walmarts stores at 2250. This adds up to 14,450 retail stores GLOBALLY. But what about Bi Mart and Danny's Gaming Land stores?Okay, so lets just DOUBLE our existing total of the global leaders in gaming console sales. That brings us to 28,900 stores.Okay, so assuming 5 million PS3s somehow exist in retail all at once, and Amazon. That would mean each and every one of those stores would have an inventory of over 173 Playstation 3's.

Basically, all I'm saying is that shipped and sold at this point is basically a meaningless difference.

@Temjin, quoting, "Basically, all I'm saying is that shipped and sold at this point is basically a meaningless difference."- I agree, but it is even less meaningful than how you point out, Temjin.

Cause the "sold" number refers to the number that was sold from SONY, not how many that went out the doors from the retailers again.So, yeah. Meaningless difference.Last edited by Beamboom on 11/17/2012 4:28:10 AM

Yeas Beamboom. If you've followed this industry for the last decade or more you'll be well aware that at least 90% of the negative press is thrown Sony's way. Microsoft even came out of the RROD scandal smelling of Roses - unless you talk about it on a exclusively PlayStation site. So, yes I think it's appropriate to say 'all the hate'.

I'm sorry but this is nonsense.The reason you think it is like this is since you are a Sony fan these articles stands out for you, they are in your focus.

It's the same syndrome as when we after we get ourselves a new car it feels like we all of a sudden meet that model a lot more often in traffic, or how we when we get a dog all of a sudden imagine that almost everyone owns the same race as you.It's all about perspective.

Before I got me a console myself, I hardly noticed there was much talk about consoles and their makers *at all* in the media. Of course it still was. I just was of little to no interest to me.But back then I could have sworn that 90% of the negative artiles in gaming press was about PC gaming. And, of course, 99% of it was unfair.... Or so it seemed, back then.

Fans typically don't accept any negativity around their brand. Like how it took *so* long before anyone even accepted that Sony had a major problem with the Vita, and called all articles covering this up to that point for "hate" and "anti-Sony bias" and whatnot. "Hey, Sony say all goes as planned, so it must be so!".

Not to mention how almost everyone just accepted that PSN was down for a MONTH and patted eachothers back with a salvating "they are doing the best they can", and instead started chanting about how unfair the media was. I mean... Come *on*.

And just as interesting, it seems Sony fans forget the *good* press coverage.Like when a Sony 1st party game gets praised from here to eternity and beyond. Cause that's, of course, only "fair". It's how it should be. *shrugs*

Or when every single review I read about the Vita were good (not ONE bad review!) it was again, silence. Cause every Sony fan took that for granted. "Of course it's good, it's SONY!".But when the media then starts reporting about how Vita are in trouble, *then* they come out with their hayforks, screaming about "hate" and "bias" and cursing that damn, Microsoft-sponsored press.

Good lord I can't stand fanboys. Sorry for drifting off into a rant. :)Last edited by Beamboom on 11/17/2012 4:04:19 AM

Ah, finally your true colors come out Beamboom. Thanks, I figured as much. I'll not bother to address your little diatribe, you'll drag me into a drawn out exchange that I can't honestly be bothered with.

As for not standing fanboys, you're one - you're a PC gaming fanboy, always have been, you just won't admit it. Your bias is as clear as day, so perhaps you'd like to stop pretending to be objective when you really are not, and never have been.

lol - isn't that a tad too evasive, even for you? But ok, if that's how you want to play. It's not like it's anything new.

What I say comes from someone who has had the opportunity to see things from two perspectives.You imagine that "at least 90% of the negative press is thrown Sony's way" only cause that is where your focus is. I imagined the same - the SAME - back when I had my focus elsewhere. The SAME highlander. My point was that I saw things the *same* as you see things now. Can't you see that your eagerness to label me puts the same label on you?

If I could wish for ONE thing however, it would have been that you stopped aiming STRAIGHT for my throat like a hurt dog no matter what the topic is. Discussing with you always ends up as an exercise in dodging insults and irrational outbursts while fighting to stay on topic. Does it *have* to be like this?

PS: I don't like PC fanboys either. Not one tiny bit. Here the other day I met one of them. He asked how I could call it hardcore gaming if it was done on a console. What an idiot.But yeah, sure. I must be a PC fanboy since I'm no Sony fanboy, right? Okey dokey.

And what is that game I play, again? The game of actually staying on topic?If your goal is to try to make me feel bad or something you have to change tactics from this childish "troll" muttering. I'm not a teenager, and neither are you although one might be in doubt at times.

But if I understand you correctly we from now on should stop being polite to each other then, and start calling each other names each time we disagree instead? Cause that will happen again, you know. We have very different perspectives on things.

It would have been far more interesting, not to mention constructive, if you instead came with a good reason why things are not as I described in my post.Cause if you could tell me why it is wrong of me to believe that fans mostly focus on negative stories regarding their own brand, and explain that in a good fashion, I might have had to reconsider my impressions. I've reconsidered before.

And maybe 9 out of ten 10 negative stories in the press indeed *are* about Sony. But you have to do better than calling me a "troll" for questioning this. I mean... Come on.

It has come to our attention that your company is not giving the Playstation 3 platform the required resources.

In order to ensure that your software is equal if not superior on the Playstation 3 as what is sold on a competitor's platform, it is the recommendation of Sony Entertainment that you have a glance at our recently announced sales numbers that are available on the internet.

Yes, as you can plainly see, the Playstation 3 Computer Entertainment System has surpassed 70 million global sales. This is on par with our nearest competitors, and in some regions, the Playstation 3 is outselling the aforementioned competitors by a healthy margin.

I really wish they kept the Kevin Butler VP persona. Not ALL ads w/ him were great, but most were. Sony even removed all the KevinButlerVP vids from YouTube (at least all the ones he did specifically for YouTube)...unless they're just hidden.

We will have to see how the Ps4 strategy pans out though. Sony may go in a completely different direction to try and be as broad-based as possible across markets to increase market share exponentially.

At least with the Ps3, Sony kept up game quality for their exclusives, and this kept their loyal hardcore game following.

Now while I appreciate your timely response in this matter, I urge that Bethesda as a company begin to expedite broad spectrum improvements. It is imperative that you maintain persistence in this matter.

Unfortunately, if these expecations are not met or exceeded, a representative from Sony Corperation will be coming by to assist you in this unique circumstance. I will leave it to you to figure out just who exactly this "representative" is, but lets just say he is busy somewhere in the Mediterranean region. Oh, and out of respect, let me forewarn you that he is a grumpy fellow.

I will now leave you with this quote from a Mr. Edward Hoagland - “Like a kick in the butt, the force of events wakes slumberous talents.”

I believe if we counted up all of those RROD'ed boxs, those 3 separate one million+ Xbox bans that M$ did, plus all the contests, giveaways, and TV shows(Boys & Girls Clubs of America, The Times Square Kinect launch, the Oprah, the Ellen, & the Jimmy Fallon shows, that 3 month long nation-wide BurgerKing Xbox contest, etc, just to name a few) that the PS3 had actually surpassed the 360 a while ago.

And as I also stated a couple years back...

PS1, the former King, PS2, the reining King PS3, inherits the whole damn King-dom.

I've said this for 4 years now, PS3 will sell past 100 million units easily. I built a statistical model based on simple price models and sales decay over time. So far my model is on the money in terms of unit sales and anticipated price cuts.

In the end I believe it will sell past 110 million by the eventual end of it's life. I actually anticipate a further price cut that the thanksgiving Black Friday bundle foreshadows nicely. The base 250GB unit with a single controller and no game will ultimately sit at $199.99, this will happen some time next year, and it will be the final price reduction for the PS3. Each price reduction & new model has injected life into the sales numbers for PS3, and the extended life cycle of this generation plays to the strengths of the PS3

If you look back 4, 5 or 6 years, the so-called experts were saying that it would not even make the 50 million unit mark. I'm not one who normally says "I told you so" - but I did.Last edited by Highlander on 11/16/2012 5:48:50 PM

one thing ill never understand about sales.more or less every single year the 360 has had less, and worse exclusives than the ps3.so its sold better.this year it has had more exclusives, and better ones, so it sells less.what the?

except there normally the ones that sell the best.makes me wonder though, we have 70M 360s and 70M ps3s out there roughly.so thats 140M consoles out there.a game like BO2 sells say 20M units, so what are the other 120M console owners doing?granted some will be duplicates, and some will be used for internet or media, but really that many?just seems that if you had 140M consoles out there you would see sales for games allot higher than what were seeing now.makes me wonder what % of people who have consoles actually buy games for them, and how often.

A good question about the number of consoles. And I agree. It is kinda weird. But it must mean that a good share of those machines are broken on both sides of the fence. I also got two friends that almost exclusively use their PS3 as a blu-ray player.Plus, I guess, many have several consoles. I know I got two.

In regards to the exclusives, yes they sell well but only to the ones who already own the consoles. I believe that the proof is in the pudding here: Not many buy a console based on the exclusives. There are other factors that are much more important.

I actually know a few people that bought a Ps3 and have NEVER used the Blu-Ray Drive, whether it be for movies or games. They download movies and watch Netflix/Hulu, but don't use their console for gaming. Granted, all of them are 50+ years old, but it goes to show that there are probably many other console owners out there that don't primarily use their console of choice to play games.

As for the sales numbers on the PS3, that's really good to hear! I'll admit that I thought I was facing a dying console when I first bought my PS3 when it came out. Flash forward 5 years later and now look at what we have :)Last edited by Hoagie324 on 11/17/2012 11:15:44 AM

I am surprised that as many others bought them, but I really love my Move controllers. The tech works great. When I bought the Wii, I said that if I never bought another game for it, it was worth the money just for the Wii Sports that came with it. It was an awful lot of fun. The Move even surpasses that. I ave played the crap out of Sports Champions and am definitely going to get the second one. It's a nice change of pace for a casual and really fun alternative to intense gameplay. But, the move option on Goldeneye, Resistance (even though I didn't like the game itself) and others were great. I'm glad that it is doing well!